South Carolina governor: Confederate flag comes down Friday COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina's governor signed a law Thursday relegating the Confederate flag to the state's "relic room" more than 50 years after the rebel banner was raised at the Statehouse to protest the civil rights movement. Compelled to act by the slaughter of nine African-Americans in their church, Gov. Nikki Haley praised lawmakers for acknowledging that the long-celebrated symbol is too painful and divisive to keep promoting....

Technical disruptions plague national businessesBy JONATHAN FAHEY AP Business Writer NEW YORK — It was a rough day for tech: The nation’s biggest airline, its oldest stock exchange, and its most prominent business newspaper all suffered technology problems that upended service for parts of the day. Government officials said that it did not appear that the incidents were related, or the result of sabotage, counter to an endless stream of jokes and conspiracy theories posted on Facebook and T...

S. Carolina Senate OKs rebel flag removalAssociated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Senate gave its final approval Tuesday to removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, but across the hall in the House, Republicans quietly sought a way to make a last stand to preserve some kind of symbol honoring their Southern ancestors at the Statehouse. The House was scheduled to begin debate Wednesday on the bill to take down the flag and its pole and send the banner to the...

USDA on guard for bird fluAssociated Press DES MOINES, Iowa — A top veterinary official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture says more money, surveillance and farm security is needed to fight off a possible return of bird flu this fall. David Swayne, director of a USDA poultry research laboratory, told the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday that no new cases have been detected in three weeks. But he says the government has increased surveillance of wild bi...

Subway suspends ties with Fogle after raidAssociated Press ZIONSVILLE, Ind. — FBI agents and Indiana State Police raided the home of Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle on Tuesday, removing electronics from the property and searching the house with a police dog, two months after the then-executive director of Fogle’s foundation was arrested on child pornography charges. FBI agent Wendy Osborne said the agency was conducting an investigation in Zionsville, an affluent Indianapolis ...

Crude oil tumbles 8 percent, points to low fall gas pricesAssociated Press NEW YORK — A slew of global economic and geopolitical factors are working to pummel the price of oil and set up U.S. drivers for very low gasoline prices later this year. The price of U.S. crude dropped 7.7 percent Monday to close at $52.53 a barrel and is now down nearly 15 percent from the high for the year set on June 10. Gasoline prices in the U.S. will likely slide somewhat from a national average of $2.77 over the next f...

Bald eagles soaring by the hundreds along James RiverRICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Bald eagles are back in record numbers along the James River, decades after they almost disappeared. Aerial surveys in March and April show that 236 pairs of eagles produced 313 young this spring. The Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1KALzLS ) reports that as recently as 2000, there were just 56 eagle pairs in the James River region. In the mid-1970s, the majestic birds were nearly wiped out by pesticide pollution. E...

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Richmond Times DispatchThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Riders evacuated after Ferris wheel stopsORLANDO, Fla. — The largest Ferris wheel on the East Coast reopened Saturday, one day after 66 riders were stranded on The Orlando Eye and had to be evacuated from the towering 400-foot attraction. “The team of technicians has successfully completed the necessary work to resolve the technical default that occurred yesterday within the system that monitors the wheel’s position,” spokeswoman Dipika Joshi told the Orlando Sentinel. No one was hur...

Fireworks shoot into crowd; 9 people suffer minor burnsAssociated Press AVON, Colo. — Officials say nine people suffered minor burns during an accident at a fireworks show in Colorado. Virginia Egger, the town manager in Avon, says a malfunction caused a fireworks shell to explode in its tube rather than firing into the sky Friday night. She says the misfired shell caused a rack of shells to tip, causing two or three shells to go off toward the crowd. The accident occurred about 17 minutes into th...

Forgiveness of Charleston church shooter prompts new discussionAssociated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — Under an outdoor tent a few blocks from Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Sharon Simmons paused while cleaning up from the previous night’s revival to ponder the idea of forgiving the white man accused of killing nine of the historic black church’s members, including the pastor. A churchgoer herself, Simmons admits feeling torn between her anger and her Christian inclination to forgive. She also ad...

Who's John Jay? Scholars urge new look at forgotten founderThe inner circle of founders has been set for as long as anyone can remember — Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Hamilton and Madison. Almost never mentioned is John Jay. "Most people know something about him. ... But very few know the full breadth of his accomplishments. Most are very surprised by what they learn," explains Heather Iannucci, director of the John Jay Homestead in this Hudson River town, where the July Fourth celebration ...

Same-sex marriage fight turns to clerks refusing licensesAssociated Press MOREHEAD, Ky. — Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis shut her blinds at work Tuesday to block the view of rainbow-clad protesters outside. They carried flowers and flags and signs saying “you don’t own marriage.” They chanted “do your job.” Moments later, she told a lesbian couple who walked in asking for a license to try another county. Davis is among a handful of public officials across the Bible Belt so repulsed by the thought of e...

In Supreme Court loss, death penalty foes see an openingAssociated Press ATLANTA — A strongly worded dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow decision this week upholding the use of an execution drug offered a glimmer of hope to death penalty opponents in what they considered otherwise a gloomy ruling. One advocate went so far Tuesday as to call it a blueprint for a fresh attack on the legality of capital punishment itself. But even those who see Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent as a silver linin...

Union sues feds over hackingWASHINGTON — The federal personnel agency whose records were plundered by hackers linked to China announced on Monday the temporary shutdown of a massive database used to update and store background investigation records after newly discovering a flaw that left the system vulnerable to additional breaches. There is no evidence the vulnerability has been exploited by hackers, agency spokesman Samuel Schumach said in a statement, adding that the...

Family flees home after getting letters from ‘Watcher’Associated Press ELIZABETH, N.J. — A couple who says they were scared away from their new $1.4 million home because of creepy letters from a stalker has sued the sellers for not telling them about a person with a “mentally disturbed fixation” on the house. Derek and Maria Broaddus said the former owners of the home in Westfield, 25 miles west of New York City, should have warned them of the person who signs the letters as “The Watcher.” The le...

Religious liberty is rallying cry after gay marriage rulingNEW YORK (AP) — Now that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, religious conservatives are focusing on preserving their right to object. Their concerns are for the thousands of faith-based charities, colleges and hospitals that want to hire, fire, serve and set policy according to their religious beliefs, notably that gay relationships are morally wrong. The Republican Party's 2016 presidential candidates are already campaigning on the issue....

Cosby lawyer: Unsealing court docs ‘terribly embarrassing’Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A lawyer for Bill Cosby argued Friday that it would be “terribly embarrassing” for the comedian if documents from a 2005 sex-assault lawsuit were unsealed. Cosby is fighting efforts by The Associated Press to unseal motions from a lawsuit he settled with a former Temple University employee. The lawsuit accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting the woman at Cosby’s home. The settlement is confidentia...

Charleston holds services for slain church membersAssociated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — Funerals for three more victims of a deadly shooting during a Bible study in South Carolina were being held Saturday at the church where they were slain. Services were first held for 54-year-old Cynthia Hurd at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 11 days after a gunman entered the church and killed her and eight other people — all African-Americans. Police contend the attack was rac...

Convict capturedMALONE, N.Y. (AP) — The escaped murderer who was shot by a state trooper near the Canadian border is in "critical but stable" condition at an Albany hospital, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Cuomo told CNN that David Sweat's condition initially was listed in stable condition but was downgraded to critical after being flown to Albany Medical Center on Sunday night. Sweat is one of two prisoners who escaped from a maximum-security New Yo...